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Advertising on a portable communication device

Advertising on a portable communication device description/claims

The present invention relates generally to portable communication devices, and, more particularly, to a method for displaying advertisements on a portable communication device.

Traditionally, commercial advertisements have been in the form of television commercials, radio commercials, and printed advertisements in magazines, newspapers, etc. More recently, as people began spending more and more time using personal computers, advertising has expanded to the internet. Internet advertisements are often found in the form of pop-up advertisements that automatically launch a new browser window containing the advertisement. A user typically must close the advertisement to remove it from the screen. Such advertisements can aggravate users causing them to seek out methods to block the advertisements, such as popup blocker programs.

As mobile and/or wireless electronic devices become increasingly popular, delivering advertisements to users of such devices is likely to become increasingly popular. Such devices include, for example, mobile telephones, portable media players and portable gaming devices. Many of these devices include features such as cameras, text messaging capability, Internet browsing capability, electronic mail capability, video playback capability, audio playback capability, image display capability and handsfree headset interfaces. Accordingly, such devices are typically capable of displaying audiovisual and/or text advertisements.

To improve advertising on portable communication devices, there is a need in the art for a system and method for displaying advertisements on an electronic device when the device is in a prescribed state, for example, when a keyguard is activated. Advertisements can be downloaded, streamed, or otherwise provided to the device and displayed periodically. The advertisements can be displayed for a prescribed period of time during which the user typically cancels the advertisement to access the normal features of the device. The advertisement can be automatically canceled in some instances. Advertisements can be targeted to the user of the device based on one or more user preferences.

According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of displaying advertisements on an electronic device comprising providing an advertisement to the electronic device, detecting at least one prescribed condition of the electronic device corresponding to display of the advertisement, and displaying the advertisement on a display of the electronic device when the prescribed condition is detected. The advertisement is displayed for a prescribed period of time during which the advertisement can be canceled based on the occurrence of a predefined event.

According to another aspect of the invention, the predefined event includes cancellation of the advertisement by a user.

According to another aspect of the invention, providing an advertisement to the electronic device includes streaming the advertisement to the device.

According to another aspect of the invention, providing an advertisement to the electronic device includes downloading the advertisement to a memory of the device.

According to another aspect of the invention, the prescribed condition is a period of inactivity of the electronic device.

According to another aspect of the invention, the prescribed condition is a geographical location of the electronic device.

According to another aspect of the invention, the advertisement is at least one of an image, a video, a sound, or text.

According to another aspect of the invention, the advertisement includes a link selectively activatable by the user for accessing additional information.

According to another aspect of the invention, the advertisement is downloaded to the memory of the electronic device via a communications network.

According to another aspect of the invention, the method further comprises activating at least one of an audio and a visual indicator for alerting the user to the display of the advertisement.

According to another aspect of the invention, the method further comprises targeting advertisements based upon information available from the electronic device, wherein the targeting includes accessing a memory of the electronic device, the memory including data related to the operation of the electronic device, analyzing at least the data related to operation of the electronic device to determine at least one user preference, generating a list of user preferences, and using the list of preferences to determine advertisements provided to the electronic device for display to the user.

According to another aspect of the invention, the method further comprises searching an advertisement server for advertisements related to the determined preferences.

According to another aspect of the invention, the accessing the memory includes accessing at least one of call log data, message log data, video/picture log data, MP3 log data, location log data, environmental log data, calendar log data, user defined preference log data, and voice memo log data.

According to another aspect of the invention, the advertisement is a limited time advertisement that expires after a prescribed time.

According to another aspect of the invention, the advertisement is automatically canceled upon the occurrence of a predefined event.

According to another aspect of the invention, a method of targeting advertisements based upon information available from an electronic device comprises accessing a memory of the electronic device, the memory including data related to the operation of the electronic device, analyzing at least the data related to operation of the electronic device to determine at least one user preference, generating a list of user preferences, and using the list of preferences to determine advertisements to be provided to the electronic device for display to the user.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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